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Temple Fortune NW11 · Bathroom renovation

Bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune

Soil pipes, hoppers and vents on Temple Fortune’s Suburb homes

We welcome a standalone bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune, whether it is a bathroom in a Temple Fortune Hill cottage or the bathroom of a flat in Temple Fortune Court. On these streets a new bathroom often shows on the outside, as a soil pipe, a flue or an extract vent, and Barnet’s planning register shows how such changes have been handled here.

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Serving Temple Fortune from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

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Bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune at a glance

Two decisions in Barnet’s register for Temple Fortune Hill put new soil pipework at the back of a house. In 2011 Barnet granted listed building consent at one house for works including a new cast iron soil vent pipe on the rear elevation. In 2002 it approved alterations to the rear elevations of another, forming French doors and new soil vent pipes. Neither decision put a new pipe on the front. Before you choose where the bath or shower goes, find out where its waste can leave the building out of view.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Temple Fortune renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a bathroom renovation cost in Temple Fortune?

A typical bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, the specification and the complexity of the room, and a fixed written price follows the visit and the design.

Scope of workTypical cost
Typical bathroom renovation£10,000–£30,000

The figure excludes VAT. A standalone bathroom gets its own room-specific quotation; try the cost calculator for a first figure.

The buildings

Where a Temple Fortune bathroom meets the building

Bathroom work here can touch something the appraisals or Barnet’s records describe: a rainwater hopper, a listed interior or the floor of a flat above another home. Bathrooms elsewhere in the Suburb are covered on our Hampstead Garden Suburb pages.

The joint Design Guidance says hopper heads with dates or ornamental features should always be retained. On Temple Fortune Lane, the Area 3 appraisal points to a very fine decorative cast iron rain hopper shared by two neighbouring houses. When a new bathroom needs a gutter, downpipe or waste connection, plan around these pieces rather than through them. In 2026 Barnet approved re-tiling and the replacement of the cast iron gutters and downpipes at one house on Temple Fortune Hill, with listed building consent.

Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area Design Guidance, Barnet and the Trust · Hampstead Garden Suburb character appraisal: Temple Fortune Lane and Willifield Way (Area 3), October 2010 · Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Inside a listed house, Barnet’s Local Plan states that any alteration affecting its special interest, some repairs included, needs consent, and the council considers internal works as well as external ones. On Temple Fortune Hill, Barnet refused an application for internal alterations to the first-floor bathroom of a listed house in 2000, and in 2021 it approved, with listed building consent, internal changes to the kitchen and ground-floor toilet of another, with a repositioned boiler flue.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents · Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

In a listed block of flats, bathroom changes can need listed building consent too. In 2015 Barnet granted listed building consent, with conditions, at one flat in Temple Fortune Court for internal alterations that included removing the wall between the bathroom and the WC, taking out a redundant communal heating system and laying a hardwood floor everywhere except the kitchen and bathroom. Expect the floor and its build-up to be part of the conversation, because in a block there is usually another home below.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing) · Historic England: 1–16 Temple Fortune Court, Temple Fortune Lane, Grade II, list entry 1259494

Permissions and local rules

Rules that reach a Temple Fortune bathroom

Soil and waste pipes on a house

Class G of the householder permitted development rules lets a house gain a soil and vent pipe without a planning application, within limits. In a conservation area the right does not reach a pipe on a wall or roof slope facing a highway when it is the principal or a side elevation. The joint Design Guidance also wants extra soil and waste pipes kept inside wherever possible, so the outside stays uncluttered. On the Suburb streets of Temple Fortune, listed building consent and Trust consent can still apply, so work out the stack route inside first.

legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1, Class G: chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes on a dwellinghouse · Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area Design Guidance, Barnet and the Trust · Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents · Hampstead Garden Suburb Scheme of Management, 1974, amended 1983 (PDF)

Extract vents and flues

The Design Guidance asks for flues to be as small as possible, placed inconspicuously and where they will not discharge onto a neighbour’s property, with every boiler and flue position considered early and drawn on the application plans. Barnet’s register has a related case on Temple Fortune Hill: a condition of a householder permission at one house required details of the rear extraction vents and boiler flue, which Barnet approved in 2018.

Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area Design Guidance, Barnet and the Trust · Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Boilers, pipes and certificates

Barnet’s register also holds a retrospective listed building consent from 2016, granted with conditions at a house on Temple Fortune Hill, covering, among other works, changes to the boiler flue and aerial line and an added boiler pipe. On the building regulations side, ask whether your installer belongs to a competent person scheme: such installers certify their own work and the certificate, due within eight weeks of completion, appears in the searches made when you sell.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing) · GOV.UK: building regulations approval, use a competent person scheme

Adapting a bathroom

If the bathroom has to be adapted for someone in your household, start with Barnet rather than with a design. Its adaptations page names the Barnet Care and Repair Agency as a source of help in finding and supervising a builder, and points to the Disabled Facilities Grant for funding. In a housing association home, the page says, the association will normally pay, and the council’s own support depends on an assessment of needs.

Barnet: adaptations to your home

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Temple Fortune guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a Temple Fortune bathroom renovation covers

Waste routes and the soil stack

A survey of where the existing soil stack, waste pipes and rainwater goods run, then a layout that keeps new pipes inside the house or on the rear wall. Original cast iron hoppers and downpipes are protected during the work, and any new external pipe is drawn and submitted for approval before it is ordered.

Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area Design Guidance, Barnet and the Trust

Floors, waterproofing and the room below

Lifting and checking the floor, a tanked wet zone around the shower, and an acoustic build-up wherever another room or another home lies underneath. In a flat in a listed block, the floor finish and any wall removal are set out in the listed building consent drawings before work starts.

Ventilation, heating and electrics

An extract fan ducted to a vent position agreed in advance, a towel rail or underfloor heating on its own controls, and electrical work by a registered installer who certifies it. Where a boiler or flue has to move, its new position is fixed on the drawings at the same time as the bathroom layout.

How we work

How we run a Temple Fortune bathroom renovation

  1. Visit

    We see the room, trace where the stack runs, and check which floor it is on and what lies beneath.

  2. Survey

    The drainage falls, the extract route and the floor build-up at the door are measured before a layout is drawn.

  3. Design

    The layout, waterproofing and storage are drawn; where a floor or wall changes, our own architects and structural engineers design it.

  4. Price

    You receive a fixed written price once the design and fittings are agreed.

  5. Installation

    The dates, and any days without a working bathroom, are agreed before work starts.

  6. Handover

    Testing, then care notes for the finishes and fittings. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our bathroom renovation work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Temple Fortune. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Photograph the outside pipework

    Send photographs of the rear and side walls showing the soil stack, waste pipes, gutters, hoppers and any vents or flues. They show us where a new bathroom can drain before we draw a layout.

  2. Check the listing and earlier consents

    Say if the house or the block is listed, and look up earlier decisions on Barnet’s planning register. A past consent for a soil pipe, flue or floor at your address shows what Barnet has already accepted there.

  3. Describe the room and what is below it

    Give the room’s size, the floor level and what lies underneath: a kitchen, a bedroom, another flat or a shop. That decides the waterproofing, the acoustic layers and how a leak would be found and stopped.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune: questions

Is a standalone bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune a job you take on?

Yes, gladly. One bathroom, a shower room or an en-suite on its own gets the same survey, drawings and written quotation as a larger project, whether the room is in a Temple Fortune Hill cottage, a Temple Fortune Lane house or a Finchley Road flat. Start by sending its measurements, photographs inside and of the pipework outside, and your lease if you own a flat.

Can a new bathroom go above a bedroom in a flat?

It can, but Barnet’s 2026 design guidance asks layouts, as far as practical, to keep bedrooms clear of living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms in the homes above and below, and where possible not to set a bedroom beside a neighbour’s living room, kitchen or bathroom. In an existing flat the same test is still worth applying, because noise from pipes, cisterns and fans travels.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 2, design and technical guidance

What happens to old pipes left on the outside wall?

Take them off as part of the job, with consent where the house needs it. A 2025 approval at a house on Temple Fortune Hill included removing redundant drainage and gas pipes from its side elevation, along with other works. Leftover pipes and brackets clutter a wall that the joint guidance wants kept tidy, so we list each one on the application drawings.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing) · Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area Design Guidance, Barnet and the Trust

Who owns the pipes that serve my flat’s bathroom?

Your lease decides, and leases differ. Some give you the pipes that serve only your flat and keep shared stacks, risers and the structure with the freeholder. Read the repairs and alterations clauses before you plan a new route for a waste pipe, and get the freeholder’s or managing agent’s consent wherever the lease calls for it.

LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Can I move a cottage bathroom to a different room?

Sometimes. The answer depends on the floor structure, where a new waste could join the stack, and, in a listed cottage, on listed building consent, which Barnet’s Local Plan says is required for any alteration that would affect the cottage’s special interest. Our survey checks the joists and the drainage route first, and the drawings show the outside of the house as well as the room, so any consent application is complete.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Temple Fortune?

A typical bathroom renovation in Temple Fortune costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, specification and complexity of the project. We give a fixed written price after the visit and the design.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Temple Fortune bathroom

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Temple Fortune bathroom. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Temple Fortune from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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